How to make Sweet Cream Ice Cream without using Ultra-Processed Foods
I was surprised to see how often ice cream makes the top of the list of ultra processed foods. It is just milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
A quick browse through even the nicest of grocery stores will tell you a very different story. While it is possible to buy a pint of ice cream from the store that is not UPF, the vast majority of them are.
Even premium brands that advertise using better quality ingredients, such as fair trade chocolate or grass-fed milk frequently use tapioca syrup.
The more mix-ins and flavorings added to the ice cream, the more chances are that it contains an ultra-processed food.
That’s not even getting into the laundry list of thickeners, stabilizers, oils, and unspecified flavorings that some of the cheaper brands use.
If you have access to an ice cream maker, making your own ice cream from scratch is one of the easiest things you can cook from scratch. There are few ingredients, and they only take a few minutes to mix together. Most of the time making ice cream is spent waiting for it to churn or freeze.
If you enjoy eating ice cream, making your own ice cream is a very easy way to remove a common ultra-processed food from your diet.
This recipe is adapted from Sweet Cream Base 1 in the Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield with Nancy J. Stevens. This book has a lot of good ice cream recipes.
Note: This recipe uses raw eggs. If you are concerned about the use of raw eggs, you can purchase eggs that have already been pasteurized, or pasteurize your own eggs.
This makes a sweet cream base that you can this use to add other flavorings.
Wait until the ice cream is almost done being churned before you add in any large pieces of mix-ins. They can jam up the dasher (the mixing blade) and cause it to get stuck or break. Check the instruction manual for your particular ice cream maker to see how to add larger mix-ins.
Churning Ice Cream
Churning is a necessary step that keeps the ice cream from just becoming a block of ice in the freezer. Churning the ice cream incorporates small amounts of air into the mixture as it freezes.
Ice Cream Makers
Old fashioned ice cream churns.
These were large wooden pails that relied on using ice and salt water to keep the ice cream cold as you turned the handle. Original versions of these ice cream churns were manually operated, and did not use electricity.
You may have seen ice cream maker balls, which are toys for children. They function on the same principle as the old fashioned ice cream churn. They are a lot of work and don’t churn ice cream as well as a modern electric machine does, but can be a fun way for children to learn how to make ice cream.
Freeze ahead bowls.
These ice cream makers have a bowl that you put in the freezer. After about 24 hours in the freezer you take the bowl out and use it to make your ice cream. They work well for churning homemade ice cream. The major drawback is that they require a lot of planning ahead, and a lot of empty space in the freezer.
Some of these are stand alone machines, and some of them are attachments to mixers. There is a popular one that can be added to a Kitchen Aid Mixer. If you have the space in your freezer, this is a good ice cream maker.
Condenser ice cream makers.
These ice cream makers have their own freezer in them. You pour your cream base into the machine and as the machine starts churning the ice cream it also freezes. It produces an excellent quality homemade ice cream in about an hour. It does not require planning ahead, nor any space in the freezer.
The downsize to these machines is that they are more expensive than other types of ice cream makers. They can also take up a little bit more space to store.
Churning Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Maker
There are some techniques that you can try to make ice cream without an ice cream maker. These techniques will work somewhat, but not nearly as well as a full ice cream machine. They require a lot of work, and the results will still be somewhat icy. They are best suited for a once in a while situation like a summer barbecue or a camping trip. Otherwise these techniques can wind up using a lot of expensive ingredients for a sub-par result.
Bag-in-bag.
For this method put the ice cream ingredients inside a smaller Ziploc bag. Make sure the bag is sealed. Place the bag inside a much larger Ziploc bag. Fill the remaining space inside the larger bag with ice cubes and add some rock salt. Seal the larger bag, and start to shake it. Shake and agitate the bag continuously for about twenty minutes. The ice cream will begin to freeze, and the shaking will work like a churn.
Ice cream ball.
This is a toy that functions similar to the bag in bag method or like an old fashioned ice cream churn. You fill the ball with the ice cream ingredients, and everyone rolls the ball around to churn it.
Frequent trips to the freezer.
Put the ice cream in small container and put it in the freezer. Every few minutes open the freezer and shake it really hard. You can also use a hand-held milk frother to make sure that no ice crystals are forming. It is a tedious method at best.
How to make Sweet Cream Ice Cream:
Equipment
Ice cream maker
Mixing bowl
Whisk
Spatula
Measuring cup
Storage container for freezing ice cream
Ingredients
1 pint of cream
1 cup of milk
2 eggs (may wish to use pasteurized eggs)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of granulated white sugar
Directions
Crack the eggs into the mixing bowl. Beat the eggs to break up yolks and create a uniform consistency.
Add the vanilla and milk to mixing bowl. Whisk to incorporate.
Add the cream to mixing bowl and whisk.
Slowly pour the sugar into the mixing bowl while continuing to whisk slowly.
When all ingredients are incorporated to the mixture, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker.
Follow the directions on your ice cream maker to churn and freeze the ice cream.
Variations
Cajeta ice cream. A thinner cajeta works better for making ice cream. When the ice cream is almost done churning, drizzle several tablespoons of cajeta into the mixture. It will mostly blend into the ice cream, but some parts will freeze into swirls. Add as much as you prefer. Here is my recipe on how to make cajeta at home without using any ultra-processed ingredients.
Mix in pecans and chocolate chips. Roughly chop up some toasted pecans and chocolate chips (Enjoy Life Chocolate Morsels are free of UPFs) and add them to the ice cream mixture in the last few minutes.
Mint chocolate chip. Add one or two drops of peppermint extract when you add the ice cream base to the ice cream machine. When the machine only has a few minutes left of churning, add your preferred chocolate chips. Do not add them too soon, because it can damage the ice cream maker.
Notes on the Ingredients
Cream
Check the labels on the cream that you buy. A surprising amount of cream has added thickening agents and emulsifiers.
I had a very hard time finding cream that was just cream. I had better luck by looking for brands that were not UHT pasteurized and came from local dairies. Try health food stores as well. Even many brands of pasture raised organic cream were UPF, but they had fewer additives than the other brands.
If you are using a cream that is not homogenized mixing the ingredients together with a blender or an electric mixer will incorporate the fat from the cream into the mixture better than just a whisk or a fork.
Milk
I usually use Horizon Organic brand Organic Pasture-Raised Whole Milk. Pretty much any whole milk will work.
If you don’t have any whole milk and want to use skim milk instead, it will still work. The end result wont be quite as nice, but it should still be fine.
UHT milk will still probably work, but it will have the slightly cooked flavor to it. It wouldn’t be my first choice.
Vanilla Extract
Vanilla extract can be store bought or easily made at home. Actual vanilla extract is not an ultra-processed food.
Do not confuse vanilla extract with vanilla essence which is an artificially flavored UPF product.
Sugar
This recipe calls for using granulated white sugar, which is not usually categorized as a UPF.
I do not recommend changing the sugar unless you have already experimented with the recipe a few times. Sugar plays both a sweetening and a structural role in making ice cream. Other sweeteners can change the texture as well as the flavor. Reducing the amount of sugar in the recipe can interfere with the churning of the ice cream and result in an icy ice cream.
Eggs
Eggs are a fresh and unprocessed food. Liquid eggs which are sold in a milk carton are an ultraprocessed food that contain many thickeners and emulsifiers. I would not be tempted to substitute liquid eggs for fresh eggs.
This is a recipe that calls for the use of raw eggs, and does not cook them. The risk of consuming raw eggs is that they could carry salmonella. The risk of salmonella will vary from location to location, and the dangers of salmonella will vary from person to person.
If you buy your eggs from a reputable source, the risk of salmonella from a raw egg is very low. If you have ever eaten raw cookie dough batter, you have eaten raw eggs. The uncooked flour in the dough was also a risk for salmonella.
Personally, I don’t worry too much about a few raw eggs here and there, because I buy most of my eggs from a local company that I think uses good farming practices.
That being said, I think it is perfectly reasonable to want to avoid eating raw eggs. You can use pasteurized eggs instead. Pasteurized eggs have been heated to a temperature that does not cook the egg through, but is hot enough to kill off any possible salmonella. Many stores sell eggs that are already pasteurized, or you can use a normal egg and pasteurize it yourself.